Will mobile phones have internet access during any planned blackouts?

[zippalippa]

For the purposes of this post let's just imagine staggered blackouts go ahead this winter. Please don't reply with 'well it won't happen' because I'm just doing a planning exercise in my head and I find it interesting to think things through!

For people working from home, usually a laptop battery can last a few hours and you can use your mobile phone as a hotspot for the internet so everything carries on as normal. But if the planned blackouts go ahead do the mobile masts cut out as well? Or do they have backup batteries so 3g/4g would still work?

I have tried googling but can't find anything pertaining to pre planned blackouts, only storms etc which often damage the masts anyway.

For our area we have 6 hours of cuts falling during one work day so it really would be a bit of a pain for home workers. Travelling to the nearest office wouldn't be much help as everyone will have the same idea and a lot of businesses have downsized so there aren't enough hot desks to serve everyone.

@Atmywitsend29 yes that is a real concern. The impact on self employed and home workers will be very difficult and I notice there's very little discussion of that aspect in the news coverage.

@CatHatSat thank you! I have to say, I only found out the other day, on another thread, I'd credit her with the links if I had a functioning memory & could remember her posting name!!

@Atmywitsend29

can you at least see when yours would be IF they happen. You might find they're in time slots when he wouldn't be working anyway or he could book work in, in those slots last etc. also does he work in your home, different locations or other peoples houses/businesses?

what power does he need? He might be ok with back up power. They're only around 3 hours in duration.

though they are NOT guaranteed to be exactly on time.

@JustOrderADoor thank you for sharing the ESEC and how to find the area codes. The rota in that document makes more sense than what I had heard elsewhere about outages only being 4-7pm.

Any time we’ve had blackouts here (good old Cornwall) my mobile data has still worked.

However, you try and avoid using your phone as you obviously can’t charge it and I’ve had blackouts lasting 12+ hours before.

I do not know what will happen in the sorts of blackouts you mention but I would assume that employers would not expect you to wfh if the power goes out.

@hesbeingabitofadick yeah, maybe, but stage 18 is a LONG LONG LONG way away from stage one and things would have already been going massively wrong in the country to get to that stage!!

I found it amusing to to scroll quickly down the black & white grids as it was like time lapse viewing!!

@zippalippa

I don't think it's a 'real concern' because at this stage if everyone uses less fuel we can hopefully avoid them. They're saying Jan/Feb -if at all, so there should be plenty of time to sort out contingencies & alter working days/hours if necessary, though most will still be able to work with back up batteries etc.

What happens with vulnerable people? Especially those that need electricity/hot water for medical machines etc.
We are a family registered as vulnerable and in need of electricity and water. There will be lots of these households who will find it even more difficult than most.

Our power went out a couple of years ago, and most phone networks went down with it (we can see the mast from our houses, so it must share our power supply). One neighbour's phone still worked, on a different network to the rest of us.

@Faircastle you're welcome. As I said, I got them off another poster last week. The more people that are aware of them, the better. Most people can plan around them
snd mitigate problems to a degree. Hopefully those that can't, will have time to get the help they need.

if I had someone relying on power for their medical needs, I'd be getting back up batteries or a generator anyway. Hopefully everyone that needs financial help to do that, gets the help they need

@hesbeingabitofadick too late 😖

Its an interesting question. I was assuming that the masts would stay online as the blackout will be targeted over that area. I highly doubt they will blackout hospitals, police stations and water treatment centres during it.

Having no Internet during a storm isn't really targeted in the truest sense as its due to the lines being down rather than an individual switch being flicked.That being said I do wonder what else will be left up, or whether its just homes being without.

@Redambergreenforgo I read that you have a Code (maybe V?) and yours wouldn't be turned off. However, I'd be checking with my supplier what the actual situation was.

AND I'd be looking into power back ups and getting some flasks & hot water bottles etc. tenner there's a schedule, do you can fill things up, heat electric blankets etc, up until the power is turned off.

Hard to use less fuel during peak times if you work at home though. Sure we can use a blanket and turn off the heating but the PC and laptop still need to be on. That's why I'm doubtful the targets will be met because so many people are based, but I do hope they are.

Im confused will these blackouts actually happen? Im a freelancer and have tons of deadlines on a Wednesday where I would have two lots of blackouts and would really fuck me

@hellosunshineagainxxx nobody knows for sure, it's all plans and considered possible but not definite. I think several factors would have to come together at the same time to trigger energy rationing but the whole of Europe seems to be talking about it so it's worth considering alternative work plans. Perhaps you could find out the nearest area that would retain power on a Wednesday and work from a friend's house or a cafe with internet? Certainly not ideal I know.

@zippalippa but if people use less fuel NOW, we'll have more in the reserves & hopefully avoid any black outs.

laptops can be fully charged and only faulty ones won't last 3 hours on battery & you can buy battery packs.

@JustOrderADoor that's true, I am certainly more mindful of our power consumption now. I just hope everyone does enough.

@hellosunshineagainxxx

well, that depends on how much people cut back on usage now.

I think if they do happen, people will just have to be more organised & differently organised Have things fully charged, do as much as they can before the deadlines are looming or work out of their own
home for the day.

Thank you for reposting @JustOrderADoor , I had seen the list of letters elsewhere but could not find out which letter I actually was 🙂

It's probably not worth buying a spare laptop battery unless mobile internet will stay up. Most home workers have to connect to their work servers in order to access a virtual desktop. All files are saved on servers rather than laptop hard drives. So really without the internet a lot of workers can't even tinker with spreadsheets as they aren't stored locally.

@JustOrderADoor thank you.
I know I'm still on the list because they recently asked what equipment we have in the home so it's updated but yes probably best to check how they plan to do this .
I have flasks and will get some back up batteries (need to check which are compatible with medical equipment).

I'm going to have a look in a bit, funnily enough after I've charged my phone!
He works purely from our house, he live streams (video games mostly) so relies on WiFi, and powers a full gaming and streaming studio set up 6 nights a week 7.30pm-1.30am.
If it comes to it I'll be suggesting he tweak his hours but with live streaming being his main income, and that Income coming fr regular subscribers and donors, I'm not sure it will help much.

So far I think he's eyeing up diesel generators thinking he can siphon out of my car 😂

@JustOrderADoor I thought they were evil QR codes. 😮

There could be a no. of reasons why mobiles wouldn't work or have internet.

1. Power to the mobile masts - often they have a back up power supply but it is not generally for long. The predicted blackouts are meant to be 3hr rolling ones so 3 hrs might be OK. Satellite systems wouldn't have the same issues. Whilst landlines would still work as the low level of power needed is sent through telephone wires so always good to have that option if you can.
2. You have to remember datacentres need power too and these host the data transfers and internet redirects, they will have back up supplies - often alot longer BUT if they are city based and have diesel generators as back up they may be limited on run times even if have fuel. However these are likely to be prioritised for power due to nature of people depending on them e.g. blue light systems. Further it is possible to redirect data traffic to other datacentres but again this all depends on the networks working.

There is a web site to identify which area you are in and also the blocks of time when blackouts would happen.

I am beginning to think lots of companies will be rethinking cloud based provision of software based on this as if connectivity is down the software won't be available to use either - so unless you have machine based software you can't work.

I can see a benefit in having one of this battery packs that vanlifers are so fond of, you can run a range of things off them for significant time and there is the option for solar recharging although the time for that is quite high, but they can also be charged from supply.